The Trespass(87)

I took the liberty of examining British Museum manuscripts from several ancient sources. The first of these is a manuscript I mentioned to you before we parted – my dear Simon – how remiss of me. I quite forgot to ask how you were, and if your adventure in Africa is parting the clouds of confusion for you. No doubt you will furnish me with all your news on your return.





Now, this manuscript, the ‘Cave of Treasures’, is a compendium of early Biblical history although it also strays into New Testament territory. It is an embellished book, in that it was written to promote a sense of wonder and awe concerning the early dealings of God with man. It is also, I should say, considered apocryphal. I’m quite sure I don’t have to explain the term, but for the sake of clarity I shall remind you. The scriptures considered to be the very word of God – i.e. recorded by man under divine inspiration – and known to us as the canonical scriptures were approved to be such by common agreement at around the time of the council of Nicaea, although some argument and debate continued for several years after the council over theological issues such as the nature of Christ’s divinity and his human nature. The canonical scriptures were deemed authoritative because they had been considered authoritative from the times of the original apostles who had walked with Jesus. That, I trust, will serve as a brief reminder. The point I am making is that one has to take great care when dealing with the apocrypha and not get too carried away by some of the more fanciful illustrations.





Come on, Charles. Get to the point. Dracup scanned down the email.





Now, bearing all this in mind, Simon, please indulge me by reading the following extracts from the ‘Cave Of Treasures’:





‘But command thy sons, and order them to embalm thy body after thy death with myrrh, cassia and stakty’ [God speaking to Adam]





‘And when Adam was dead his son Seth embalmed him, according to Adam’s command, and they took Adam’s body and buried it in the Cave of Treasures’





‘And God said unto Noah, Take thy wife, and thy sons, and the wives of thy sons, and get down from this holy mountain. And take with thee the body of your father Adam and set his body in the centre of the Ark, and lay these offerings upon him. He is to be revered unto all generations and I will set apart a people for his care and preservation until the end times.’





Dracup frowned. Adam? Care and preservation...?





My dear Simon, I can only imagine how you are feeling having read these small excerpts. Let me first tell you, should you be inclined to write them off as speculative, that other ancient writings lend support to the ‘Cave Of Treasures’ text. ‘The book of Adam’, for example, states that Noah was entombed beneath a mountain, that the Ark was closed during these latter days of Noah but that Noah went into it each night to light the lamp he had made, and which burned before the body of Adam. He carried in his hand a staff of unparalleled workmanship, fashioned from Eden’s Tree of Life and surmounted by a beautiful interlocking crest, the two halves of which form the recognisable Christian symbol of – a cross.





Dracup was shaking like a leaf. He realised he was saying, over and over again, “It can’t be. It can’t be.” He read on.





I would put it to you, Simon, that your sceptre is none other than the legendary staff of Moses, handed down directly from its first owner, Adam, through Noah’s line to the patriarch Moses himself.





Also note that the Cave of Treasures itself appears to be a physical location, a subterranean mausoleum of the patriarchs, perhaps. And I have no doubt that, when properly translated, the remarkable crest of Noah – or should I say Adam – will pinpoint that location.





This may seem a fanciful observation, Simon, but I recall that the grandfather clock in your aunt’s house was set to seven minutes past seven. This was the indicator that led you to the sundial and so to the artefact buried in your grandfather’s garden. You will know that the number seven is deeply significant in ancient literature. And I believe your grandfather intended to show you more than just the location of the artefact when he set the timepiece so. The ancients divided the human frame into seven parts; the head, the chest, the stomach, two hands and two feet; and man’s life was divided into seven periods. Consider: a baby begins teething in the seventh month; a child begins to sit after fourteen months (2 x 7); begins to walk after twenty-one months (3 x 7); to speak after twenty-eight months (4 x 7); ceases sucking after thirty-five (5 x 7); at fourteen years (2 x 7) he begins to finally form himself; at twenty-one (3 x 7) he ceases growing. The number seven points to the human span itself, and what better example of a perfect creation (seven being the perfect number) than the first man, Adam?